EM
Pretoria, South Africa
Tesla / SpaceX
Elon Musk
Bullied as a kid in apartheid South Africa. Read encyclopedias for company. Bet his entire fortune on rockets and electric cars when both were considered jokes.
First-principlesRisk toleranceManufacturing obsession
Struggles
Tesla and SpaceX both almost failed in 2008. Public mental-health discussion. X (Twitter) controversies.
Family
Married multiple times. Eleven+ children. Brother Kimbal is also a founder.
The full story
From day one to today.
The journey
Milestones, not magic.
1995
Founded Zip2. Sold for $307M.
1999
Founded X.com (became PayPal). Sold to eBay for $1.5B.
2002
Founded SpaceX. Three failed launches before success.
2008
Tesla nearly went bankrupt. Personally bailed it out.
Wins
- Built Tesla / SpaceX into a defining brand from Pretoria, South Africa.
Setbacks
- Tesla and SpaceX both almost failed in 2008. Public mental-health discussion. X (Twitter) controversies.
News, interviews & references
Read, watch, dig deeper.
Live links — open the latest articles, interviews and profiles about Elon Musk across the web.
Next journey
Jeff Bezos — Amazon / Blue Origin